When I was doing my paper dying some weeks back, it was without any real plan as to what comes next. Then last night I found myself making these.
As this page a day project is winding up towards the last few pages, I thought I’d share with you what’s been going on; recent days have made these recent page snippets…
As one day merges into another, so the theme of a page drifts through those either side. I’ve noticed this more and more as the book goes on.
(Starting in mid March I’ve probably only got about a week’s worth of pages to go. Three months have flewn!)
The past week I’ve been more than a bit preoccupied with paper cut outs. I’ve been using up some of the dyed paper
Repeating shapes unite the pages. Contrasting colors separate them.
Layers on layers, lifting edges, like leaves.
With the rest of the alphabet stencils cut (ok… v, w, x, y, z aren’t done yet… it’s a bit fiddly and I wanted to get on and play!) today’s page is all about sat sat saturday…
Layering up the letters, positive and negative cut-outs
Using a mix of acrylics, glazes, watercolors, gouache, pastels and charcoal to see how they work out
I do love stencils, and after watching this vid from Julie Pritchard and Chris Cozens I was inspired to follow their technique using my own stencils. (I especially like the way they recycle the colors from the stencils onto tissue paper to reuse later on in collages)
So, I got myself some Frisket Film (if you’re shopping in the UK I can recommend Artifolk.)
Frisket is a low tack film that can be be cut to shape with scissors or craft knife, made especially for airbrush masks. (although I’m not air brushing, I’m using a spray bottle with dye.)
Used on a flat paper it sticks just enough to withstand leaks and dislodging, but on the bumpy lumpy surface of my sketchbook page it doesn’t have enough ‘cling’ to make a completely water-tight seal, but I’m happy with this – where the color oozes under it makes for a deckled edge to the stenciled lines.
Building up the layers is a lot of fun!
Dabbing the puddles of color to soak up excess liquid keeps it (slightly) under control!)
After letting it dry I added a couple more Frisket shapes, re-sprayed and a sprinkling of Brusho powder.
Check back later and I’ll show you how it developed from here!
Thursday’s page focused on utilising bits of the dyed paper through stacking n stitching, to exploring cut and torn shapes
As the cut out shapes from Sunday echo through the pages, Tuesday bore the same linear curves and disconnected egdes through which a glimpse of Thursday…
Much coloring, inking, paint splatting later, the page evolves through different color groups and combinations. A journey of a day! 🙂
As Sunday’s cut-out page was backed with card, turning over to Monday’s page, meant incorporating two big rectangles of card bang in the middle of the page. I often follow the adage If you can’t hide it, make a feature of it, so this page was destined to be layered in a chunkier fashion than before.
Collaged into disguise with layers of dyed paper, bits n scraps of leftovers from old projects (those swirl shapes keep on coming back!), unified with layers of tissue paper.
After accidentally modpodging too far over the edges, as an exercise in ‘let’s see what happens’, I brushed modpodge over the card, then red ink. Scraping back when it was nearly dry revealed the shiny gold again.
When I was doing the paper dying thing I was using future pages of sketchbook to catch the drips.
Today this page came round. Pleasant in itself, but that was then. The nature of this is to be ephemeral, fleeting, evolving. This page belongs to today: time to change.
Skipping over the stages I forgot to photograph… then came the inky bit
What’s with white ink, then? I know, like dilute white paint. Just concept of ‘white ink’ doesn’t sit straight in my head. Anyways, white ink can be a bit milky, but dripping onto wet colored ink gives this effect. Can’t always guarantee inky splodge is dragon shaped 😉
The dragonyness left as he dried. But I think the idea of the shape got stuck in my head as I remembered I hadn’t done any cut outs for a while…
Back with the metaphors this book throws up: Y’know when the events of one day echo and reverberate, the memory creeps into the next few days? Such will be the next few pages!
More ink, sprayed, dripped, smudged…
integrating the stark whiteness from underneath, and stenciling its negative onto what will be next Tuesday’s page.
As the colors warmed up, it seemed to be wanting some gold. Metallic card stuck to the back of the page shines through.
it’s been over a week since the last round up of daily sketchbookery, here are some of the last week-and-a-bit’s additions…
Scraps of dyed paper are beginning to crop up
I’d been hunting through old magazines for some silhouettes to use, I’ve a feeling these might make a few appearances in pages to come.
The faces were cut out from some over-printings (more on this later)
If I had to choose a geometric shape, I would choose the circle.
These doodlings are a form of meditation.
the words themselves are unimportant
The pen walks around, and my bitty thoughts are released.
I’ll add some more later 😀 Thanks for looking
Mixy's Art Blog 